Monsoon Summer by Mitali Perkins

Monsoon Summer is a romance novel and a whole lot more. Jazz, a tall, strong, smart business person, is also a 15-year-old girl with a crush on her best guy friend, Steve. She's sure he could never be romantically interested in a girl like herself. Strangely enough, during a summer in which they never see each other, their romantic issues are resolved. The reason they are apart is that Jazz and her family spend the summer at an orphanage in India where they all learn about the gifts they can bring to helping other people. I breezed through this book, enjoying it all the way. It's not a difficult book and it's not all that complex, but it pulled me in and made me interested in India and the culture that Jazz encounters there. If you like this kind of romance and coming of age story, I also recommend Dairy Queen (a little more complex and a bit more mature). Recommended for readers who like romance, world travel, and stories about becoming happy with who you are.